1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to transactions. Specifically, the present invention relates to systems and methods for facilitating purchases or other monetary transactions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems for facilitating purchases are employed in various demanding applications including credit card, Automated Teller Machine (ATM), checking account, and brokerage account transactions. Such applications demand efficient and secure systems to facilitate the transactions.
Conventionally, devices such as checks, credit cards, check cards, and ATM cards facilitate monetary transactions. Unfortunately, such devices, called tokens, are susceptible to loss or theft. As identity theft increases, lost or stolen tokens become increasingly problematic.
The proliferation of identity theft and credit card fraud has helped spawn increasingly complicated and expensive smart cards. Smart cards often incorporate additional authentication mechanisms to thwart fraud. Unfortunately, smart cards, which may contain additional user information, such as medical records and user photos, may actually increase user vulnerability to fraud and identity theft, since a successful thief may have access to more information. Furthermore, as users increasingly rely on additional functionality afforded by smart cards, such as accommodating electronic cash, users may be more inconvenienced when the cards are lost or stolen.
Systems and methods for implementing tokenless transactions address some problems associated with token use. An exemplary system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,042, by Pare, Jr., et al., entitled TOKENLESS BIOMETRIC ELECTRONIC CHECK TRANSACTIONS. Generally, the system employs an identification apparatus that accepts biometric input from a user. A data processing center, which is part of a third party identicator, then identifies the user and facilitates selecting a checking account associated with the user based on the biometric input. A user then inputs a transaction amount, which is employed by the data processing center to initiate an electronic checking transaction via an automated clearing house to pay the transaction amount.
Unfortunately, the system has various shortcomings. The system is optimized for use with a single registered checking account and does not address credit card or other transaction types. Furthermore, both the payee (seller) and payor (buyer) are authenticated by a third party identicator. Accordingly, the seller must register with the identicator by providing information, such as hardware identification codes, phone numbers, email addresses, payee financial accounts, and so on. Furthermore, the seller must obtain digital certificates or other authentication data for use with the system. This registration step and subsequent seller authentication steps are undesirably time consuming and cumbersome.
Furthermore, the above-referenced system apparently lacks efficient mechanisms to enable a user to alter data maintained by the third party identicator. Altering data maintained by the third party identicator may require cumbersome re-registration. In addition, information such as transaction amounts, seller identities, lists of buyer checking accounts, lists of seller accounts, and/or other transactional information is displayed using a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen, which may be vulnerable to eavesdropping by identity thieves.
Furthermore, users with plural checking accounts must provide manual input to enable the system to determine which account to employ for each transaction. Manually selecting from among plural checking accounts is error prone, especially when users are shopping and lack immediate access to account balances and other information that may be required to select the appropriate account. Requiring additional user input via a keypad at the point-of-sale may further delay shopping lines while users decide which checking accounts to employ for the electronic transactions.
To display the list of available buyer and seller checking accounts via the LCD display, an electronic message is sent from a data processing center or other processor back to the personal identification apparatus. This additional signal transmission, which occurs for each transaction, is time consuming and represents inefficient use of network bandwidth, as this extra messaging may further clutter already congested networks.
Alternatively, to select an account, a user employs the keypad to enter a code, corresponding to a desired account. However, requiring users to remember and enter index codes is relatively user-unfriendly, awkward, error-prone, and slow.
Patents related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,042 include the following by Pare, Jr., et al.: U.S. Pat. No. 6,269,348, entitled, TOKENLESS BIOMETRIC ELECTRONIC DEBIT AND CREDIT TRANSACTIONS; U.S. Pat. No. 5,838,812, entitled TOKENLESS BIOMETRIC TRANSACTION AUTHORIZATION SYSTEM; U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,789, entitled TOKENLESS BIOMETRIC ATM ACCESS SYSTEM; U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,142, entitled TOKENLESS BIOMETRIC ELECTRONIC STORED VALUE TRANSACTIONS; and associated parent patents. Generally, these systems suffer from many of the aforementioned shortcomings of U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,042 and may further require use of an additional Personal Identification Number (PIN) that is manually entered via a keypad or other data-entry device. Unfortunately, users often forget pin codes, especially when users have several accounts, each having different codes.
Hence, in addition to requiring that users provide biometric samples, existing biometric transaction systems often require buyers and sellers to manually enter input identification codes and to manually select accounts and to approve or cancel transactions. However, such additional user input may be inconvenient and may delay shopping lines.
Furthermore, existing systems may require excessive additional infrastructure, such as processors, devices, and communication lines. The systems often do not maximize use of existing credit and ATM networks, terminals, machines, and other infrastructure. Furthermore, existing authentication and payment systems, ranging from smart cards to tokenless systems, often lack mechanisms to significantly reduce overall time required to transact business. Consequently, implement.
Hence, a need exists in the art for an efficient system and method that facilitates transactions, such as purchases, while minimizing data entry requirements and reducing overall shopping time and effort. There exists a further need for a system that helps minimize identity theft and that efficiently leverages preexisting infrastructure.